Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to update the House on the position with respect to Holy Family national school in Mullingar. The House will recall that there have been significant delays in the delivery of this project. These delays arose initially because of unforeseen ground conditions and other similar issues that can arise on any building project. However, in recent months, I have been disappointed that progress on site has been extremely slow and we are still not entirely clear as to why this has been the case. The most recent programme provided by the contractor for this project indicated a completion date of late October. There was an initial acceleration of activity on site at the time this programme was provided. However, I regret having to report to the House that neither the Department nor Westmeath County Council, to which the project has been devolved for delivery, is satisfied with how these works have progressed in recent weeks.

The House will be aware that a number of matters have been raised through the dispute resolution mechanisms of the public works contract in respect of this project, as would normally happen in major building projects. The resolution of these issues is now at a critical juncture. A meeting will take place later this week in that respect. This meeting will be attended by officials from Westmeath County Council, supported by its design team. Officials from my Department will also be in attendance. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the proactivity of Westmeath County Council and the design team in trying to move this forward.

Given this, I cannot get into detail on the matters that are the subject of this conciliation process except to say, in broad terms, that they are technical issues and the issue of delays. A revised programme is also being sought in that context and we also expect to get greater clarity on why the project has been so significantly delayed. I hope that these and all outstanding matters can be addressed through this process. I also hope that it will provide an outcome that we can be satisfied with. Such an outcome will be confidential. However, I hope that in finding a resolution to all these matters, there can then be no reason for the project not to move forward at pace.

It is of the greatest concern to me that the pupils, staff and school community of Holy Family national school are not yet in situin a school which was initially scheduled for completion in September 2018. However, I am thankful to the patron and school management of both Holy Family national school and St. Etchen's in Kinnegad who have gone out of their way to arrange for the provision of temporary school accommodation for the special needs pupils impacted on by the delays. We are also thankful to St. Loman's GAA Club for its assistance in providing extra classroom space for the pupils of Holy Family national school. It is hugely disappointing that it has been necessary to activate these contingency arrangements, but we remain hopeful they will only be needed for a short while.

Until then Westmeath County Council will continue to keep the school authority and patron body fully informed of progress on site. At the same time, officials from my Department will continue to liaise with the patron of Holy Family national school on contingency arrangements should the project be delayed further. I sincerely hope we will be in a position in the coming days to provide the Holy Family school authority with some further clarification on progress on site. More particularly, we hope progress from now on will be to everyone's satisfaction. I do enter a caveat because I have already stood in front of the Deputy when he raised this issue and outlined a timeframe. I understand the intensity of feeling in his community is palpable and has moved beyond frustration. I appeal to the contractor to meet the challenge head on. There are contractual obligations that I am not going to get into. I appeal at a human level to the people delivering the project to for one second feel the frustration and anger felt at so many false dawns in its delivery.

I again thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Not a week goes without him being on to me about it.

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